Posted
by
timothy
on Thursday August 25, 2011 @01:58PM
from the oh-she's-always-theatening-people dept.

jfruhlinger writes "Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the heavily populated U.S. Northeast Corridor. If you work in IT, you know that there are few things that are worse for electronics than water; so, what's your plan? Tom Henderson has come up with a checklist, which sensibly includes backing everything up, twice; not that you have time for it now, but for future reference you might want to consider just moving your whole data center to a location that's been conveniently pre-hardened, like a water tower or a boiler room." Note that Irene has been no joke in the Caribbean; in Puerto Rico (with relatively modern infrastructure), about a third of the island lost power.

Yeah, no worries here, either. I live in central Ohio (close enough to the Mississippi/St.Lawrence continental divide that I've actually crossed it while walking the dog really -- yes, really), and I estimate that for a hurricane to get this far inland, this far north, and this far above sea level, not to mention crossing the entire Appalachian mountain system, with any significant punch left, the storm in question would have to be at least a category twelve, probably more like fifteen, on the scale where

This is actually incorrect. Think of the atmosphere as the surface of a balloon, much like curved space. There are large "mountains" and deep "valleys" (ridges and troughs) - domes of high pressure and bowls of low pressure. When a massive LP system such as a hurricane creates a large dip in the surface, it is steered by (pointed in the direction by) high pressure cells, around the periphery of them, and powered by the general flow of air around them as well.

I'm no weatherman but it seems to me that in addition to flood stage rain event a strong late summer hurricane passing over the U.S. could easily spin off tornadoes. Either of those events usually cause some worries, even to the mighty mid-westerners.

But who the hell cares, what's next?

"No worries here in Australia, mate, for that to reach me, it'd have to be a bloody [and imaginary] category 500"
+1 Insightful (or more maybe)

Yeah, no worries here, either. I live in central Ohio (close enough to the Mississippi/St.Lawrence continental divide that I've actually crossed it while walking the dog really -- yes, really), and I estimate that for a hurricane to get this far inland, this far north, and this far above sea level, not to mention crossing the entire Appalachian mountain system, with any significant punch left, the storm in question would have to be at least a category twelve, probably more like fifteen, on the scale where Katrina was a mere five.

Recently moved there, did you? Hurricane Ike [clipsandcomment.com] did a pretty good number on central Ohio despite only being a category 4 storm. 2008 wasn't that long ago either.

About the only accurate part of your post is the crossing the Appalachian limitation... Hurricanes that reach Ohio tend to dodge the Appalachians by way of that pesky Gulf of Mexico.

Yeah right, power and telecom frequently go out in a moderate thunderstorm down there. I have a coworker that's dealt with many offices at three different employers over the last 15 years and they've all had the same kinds of problems. The solution is to UPS everything and just not sweat it when the offices down there lose internet because you will NOT be able to get someone to respond in under 4 hours like you will stateside.

No one in Puerto Rico panics like they do in the US when it comes to Hurricanes. 99.9% of buildings are concrete.

My grand parents live down there and went a whole month without power and electricity during the 2004 hurricanes. They have a cistern in the back that collects rain water in case the water supply gets tainted and generators in case electricity goes out.

Lots of people do and live with it. Hurricanes and mudslides are no problem for us.

Tell that to all the people in Haiti, who still haven't recovered from the earthquake there a couple years ago. Or the people in various other 3rd-world cities where everything's made of concrete and they didn't think earthquakes were a concern until one hit.

Concrete is a terrible construction material, unless you reinforce it with a lot of steel. But steel's expensive compared to plain concrete.

Almost anything that you see today more than 2 stories high be it in a developing country or not is going to have steel reinforcement. Sure you can make the beams out of concrete as well as the columns but even then they are reinforced with steel rods. And working with steel actually tends to be cheaper than concrete because you spend less time and labor.

Wood structures as you would find in your typical house in the US is actually pretty bad when it comes to earthquakes. Having lived in the US and then havi

Sorry, but the proof is in the pudding. Haiti->concrete->disaster in an earthquake. Countless wooden structures built by non-engineers->work just fine in earthquake.

Sorry, but wood does NOT need a ton of steel to survive an earthquake. Countless houses across America attest to that. We've had earthquakes here for centuries, yet wooden structures generally do just fine. These things aren't steel-reinforced, they're just plain old houses built by uneducated morons. Wood can do this because, un

That's the same thing my friends who have family there tell me. And it's generally the same thing I've seen with typhoons in Asia. Most destruction comes from landslides and biblical amounts of rainfall that result in flooding. But otherwise the vast majority of buildings weather the storm unscathed.

I don't understand how the hell it is that states like Florida permit people to build homes out of lumber or live in trailers. Then there's the whole thing of people building homes along the water, having them d

I'm up here in RI and honestly all I see us getting is a little rain with some wind. We did have a hell of a T-storm earlier this summer that ripped a few trees up, and I don't expect this to be much worse to be honest.

How fast were those winds going? 20mph? thats nothing... when you get 75mph sustained winds (thats cat1) to 135mph sustained winds (cat4) then talk to me... That same attitude is what got so many people in Katrina killed.

You'd better hope you're right -- and away from the water. If you're wrong, you could end up five feet above sea level with a fifteen-foot storm surge, and need to swim in 100 mph winds and twenty-foot seas.

Don't forget, emergency services (police, ambulance, fire,...) suspend their services during these severe storms, so there's no help available (even if your phone service still works). The definition of pitiful is recordings of 911 calls made during the landfall of almost any major hurricane. People

i've been through a few hurricanes in NYC and we have these things called windows to keep the water out. it's a rectangular hole cut into the building with multiple panes of glass with a metal frame and some sealing material around it.

in some instances if there are extremely high winds predicted we put packing tape on the windows in an X shape in order to prevent shatter

It is stupidity like this that gets people in trouble. The last hurricane of this size to come near NYC was Gloria in 1985. It did several hundred millions of dollars of damage to NYC. If it had been a little closer to NYC and hit at high tide it would have been catastrophic.

Your nice little X of packing tape is going to do a whole lot to stop a tree limb or 2x4 that is carried in 90MPH winds.

i remember Gloria. we put some tape on the windows and stayed home watching TV. the damage was probably in the burbs or the burb parts of NYC. believe it or not most of NYC by area is private homes where you can't see manhattan at all. the part where all the work gets done is completely hurricane proof

Except all the financial computer systems that rely on power and other utilities that are housed in the basements of the buildings which could get swamped by the storm surge. I know a lot of that stuff has moved to Jersey, but I'm not sure how vulnerable that area is to storm surge.

The power comes through the basement and I'd bet dollars to donuts that the transfer switches that switch to generator power are down there as well. A bunch of London banks found out that this is a common mistake when the Thames flooded last year.

You have to get a bit above 90mph before significant sized limbs get carried, heck we had 75 mph winds in the thunderstorm last night and while it will uproot some trees you don't see it carrying branches across yards.

Well the article got it wrong.They moved it to an old water tank. It was not a tower.Those tanks are all concrete 8" thick actually and are ground level.They never fail and yes I am in Florida and been there and done that. I fear that New York is going to be an epic disaster since they have NO clue how to deal with this.

"Note that Irene has been no joke in the Caribbean; in Puerto Rico (with relatively modern infrastructure), about a third of the island lost power."

Dont fucking insult me. Relatively modern infrastructure? We don't build our buildings with fucking wood and gypsum board... We use armed concrete... that is why we can take a Category 5 Hurricane (like Hugo) or Category 4 (like Georges or Katrina) and survive it without the DRAMA the US experienced with Katrina... When we get a hurricane like that, we receive it with Don Q Rum and in a Beach Chair...

Now If you had said that the island was a step up from a third world country, I couldn't agree with you more... If the goverment agencies did their job right one third of the island wouldn't have lost power and water for more than a day... The services down there are such a fucking joke compared to 20yrs ago when a Category 5 Hurricane would cause the same inconveniences that this Category 1 hurricane caused.

Don't let me get started on the "puppet" we got as a governor... he makes Obama look competent...

There were tornadoes in NE MD just a few years ago, maybe you forgot. More importantly, that inlet at the bottom of Ocean City, MD was created by the Chesapeake Potomac Hurricane [wikipedia.org] in 1933. You should have never been under the impression that Maryland has some sort of 'free pass'.

Just virtualize your virtual servers so your system is 100% virtual with no hardware, and you have a completely unusable system that can't be damaged because it doesn't exist! Wait, what was the question again?...to the cloud!

Arizona seems to be pretty safe from natural disasters. It's too dry for tornadoes to form (we do get "dust devils" frequently, but those are harmless). We're not close enough to the east coast to be affected by any hurricane. We don't seem to get any significant earthquakes, though it's conceivable we could get some very minor tremors if any big quakes hit California which isn't that far away. It's much too hot for any ice storms or other winter weather (in fact, it almost never snows). As long as you

I'm talking about southern Arizona, which as you may or may not know, is a desert. There are no significant trees here, and predictably, there's no wildfires. Those happen in the parts of the state which have trees. Take a look at that link of yours. Notice all the fires on the map are in places that are green. Those are places where trees grow. The brown parts are desert; that's there Phoenix, the capital city with 4+ million people, is loca

It's predicted to be a category 1 or 2 when it hits NJ and could still be a hurricane when it hits NYC. Although it could be *just* a tropical storm which only causes heavy rainfall and moderate to sever flooding.

It has been a long time but there have been occassions of Category 3 and 4 Hurricanes making first landfall in New England. When that happens they are just as devastating as those winter storms you fear. Although it does not happen very often and it appears that this one will be below, or barely at, Category 3 by the time it hits New England. There was a stretch from 1938-1960 where New England was hit by Category 3 every couple of years (with the 1938 storm reaching Category 5 level gusts at some places).

Well, I feel threatened, but that's mainly because Irene is due to hit exactly where and when I planned on driving for vacation. It's altering my vacation plans and that's majorly annoying. We're taking a 10th anniversary trip without the kids. Do you know how RARE trips like that are? (No kids, not 10th anniversary.)

He mentioned New England specifically, not just the whole Northeast. Agnes did damage in Pennsylvania, not up here. We haven't been hit by anything all that serious since at least Hurricane Carol (1954):

BTW: As far as I am concerned no hurricane in my entire lifetime has had a major impact on the 'Northeast' (i.e. the 6 New England states). This trolling guy from Massachusetts says Pennsylvania is about as much 'Northeast' as Westchester County is 'Upstate

BTW: As far as I am concerned no hurricane in my entire lifetime has had a major impact on the 'Northeast' (i.e. the 6 New England states). This trolling guy from Massachusetts says Pennsylvania is about as much 'Northeast' as Westchester County is 'Upstate New York'. Pennsylvania and anything south is at best 'Mid-Atlantic'.

"Northeast" and "New England" really aren't the same thing. The northeast region [wikipedia.org] is New England, plus N.Y., N.J. and Pennsylvania.

Bob and Gloria both did damage but somehow in my mind I don't think of them as massive hurricanes because they didn't do much damage where -I- was at the time. In fact I seem to recall there was an unnamed 'storm after Bob' that caused more damage to some communities than Bob did.

Eh, ignore this moron, maybe his power was out and he was without tv or internet, probably does not even lives here. Irene did hit us directly, the eye of the storm entered through Humacao and left through the city of Dorado. It was a tropical storm at the time (winds 65-70mph), it became a hurricane on top of us. Most of the problems here are with: